Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art

An embracive, multi-perspective tour through and beyond Nordic artistic experiments, conceptual reconfigurations and new modes of artistic agency.

Offering an in-depth exploration of art’s contingent evolution with technology and digital culture, this book goes far beyond familiar depictions of Nordic aesthetics in art. It explores art’s role and inquiries in response to changing sociopolitical realities in the welfare state and in the wider world. First-hand perspectives of pioneering and pivotal artists form the basis of chapters penned by leading scholars and curators of Nordic art. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art recasts the Nordic art context in an expanding digital condition and reveals horizontal ways to write its histories.

Over the past few decades, the Nordic region has witnessed large shifts in its political, social and international outlook. Meanwhile, its art, commonly described as introverted, contemplative and wild, is also undergoing changes. As technology embeds itself further into the contemporary art scene, there is a renewed need to examine the role of art in society and everyday life, and to consider how the digitalization of art has tackled socio-political realities, locally and in the wider world. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art includes a collection of testimonials from 78 artists, connected to Nordic art, who employ concepts and/or tools relating to the digital in their practice. Their statements form the basis of the essays in Part 2, penned by leading scholars affiliated with the Nordic art context, which inquire into the digital influences on contemporary art, with particular attention paid to the national and international Nordic socio-political context. Landscapes, nature, minimalism, melancholia--this book examines how these traditional Nordic tropes hold up in the growing field of digital contemporary art, and asks: to what extent have digital dynamics been adopted into the imaginaries and practices of Nordic artists?

Tanya Toft Ag (editor) is a curator and scholar specializing in media and digital art and its urban implications.Affected by technology and globalization, the Nordic region is experiencing large shifts in its socio-political conditions and international outlook today. As digital dynamics affect life worlds, contemporary artists are making new inquiries in response to the changing Nordic context. As a result of these ever-evolving circumstances, conditions and motivations for making art change as well. As technology and digital culture become more deeply embedded in the contemporary art scene, there is a renewed need to examine the role of art in society and everyday life, and to consider how the digital inspires artists to evolve and tackle socio-political realities, locally and in the wider world.

"This book achieves to forge new pathways in the studies of contemporary art by expertly balancing regional, national, and international contexts for understanding Nordic artistic practice shaped by digital technologies. Short artist testimonials and chapters by seventeen experts in Nordic digital art trace the variety of influences that have been affecting the art scenes in the region. Structured around dynamics including materiality, perception, and collaboration, as well as nordic noir, political dialogues, and institutions, the text provides a much needed account that links people, places, and events within a matrix of local and global influences. Digital Dynamics in Nordic Contemporary Art both provides an indispensable survey and expands the art-historical canon by exploring uncharted territories."

"Contemporary digital culture is both global and local, or 'glocal' as the catchword goes. The interplay of traditions and ideas matters and is necessary to explain the complexities we all are dealing with in our daily lives. This book offers a valuable contribution to the ongoing discussion by offering a Nordic perspective--or rather, perspectives: as the varied contributions show, the digital arts and cultural initiatives that originate in the Nordic countries are anything but monomanic."

Ina Blom, author of The Autobiography of Video. The Life and Times of a Memory Technology (2016)

"A timely introduction to the ways in which digital culture has changed art practice in the Nordic region."

Maurice Benayoun, artist and Professor at City University of Hong Kong

"With this vast exploration of the artistic landscape, the media art compass points to a North that was not clearly mapped, revealing the political, social and aesthetic strata and their interweaving tectonics that underlies the most contemporary forms of Nordic art practices."

Oliver Grau, Professor for Image Science and Member of Academia Europaea

"A rich source on the digital and the arts--great to explore."

For more information, or to order this book, please visit https://www.press.uchicago.edu